Garneau enters Liberal leadership race

By ANDY BLATCHFORD The Canadian PressPublished November 28, 2012 - 11:48am Last Updated November 28, 2012 - 9:19pm

UPDATED 8:19 p.m. Wednesday

FORMER ASTRONAUT MARC GARNEAU joined the federal Liberal leadership race Wednesday, touting himself as the party’s best chance to defeat Stephen Harper.

Garneau cast himself as the candidate with the most leadership experience and someone who would make diversifying the Canadian economy a top priority.

The former president of the Canadian Space Agency joins a crowded field that includes fellow Montreal MP Justin Trudeau, the eldest son of former prime minister Pierre Trudeau. Garneau is expected to give Trudeau, the presumptive front-runner, one of his biggest tests in the race for the top Liberal job.

The two candidates’ respective campaign kickoffs, however, were starkly different.

Garneau strode into a packed hotel meeting room in his Montreal riding on Wednesday to an ovation from some 100 people.

The event, however, featured no big-name Liberals, no music, only a few chants of “Garneau, Garneau, Garneau.”

It was significantly more reserved than Trudeau’s rally in another part of the city last month. Trudeau received a rock star welcome when he made his announcement before a boisterous, adoring throng of 500 supporters. The crowd included a number of former MPs, at least one current MP and some of his father’s former cabinet ministers.

When asked by reporters Wednesday about Trudeau, Garneau replied that Liberals must consider one key question when choosing the party’s next leader: “Who is the best candidate to defeat Stephen Harper?”

“That is the fundamental question and I believe that I am this person,” he said of the April 14 leadership vote.

“I believe that they will recognize that I’m the best candidate to become the leader.”

Garneau, the first Canadian in space, refused to put any limits on his own potential when asked whether Trudeau can be beaten.

“Of course, I believe that all the candidates can be defeated,” he said without specifically naming Trudeau.

On his way into the Liberal caucus in Ottawa on Wednesday, Trudeau welcomed Garneau’s entry into the race.

“He’s a man of ideas and strength and he is going to be an important player in the coming months in the rebuilding of the Liberal party,” Trudeau said. “And I’m very excited he’s part of it.”

Trudeau has long been seen by his critics — some of them fellow Liberals — as a man of more flash than substance.

Garneau, meanwhile, is well-regarded on Parliament Hill as an earnest, hard-working, intelligent MP. He is known as a soft-spoken politician who rarely displays hyper-partisan bombast often expected of political leaders.

On several occasions during his speech Wednesday, Garneau appeared to force himself to make an extra effort to raise his voice to a booming level.

“Join me today and together we will take Canada to new heights,” he shouted into the microphone in closing out his address.

His speech touched on issues such as streamlining taxes to make them fair for everyone, ensuring Canadians can enjoy a secure retirement, and generating more jobs inside and outside the natural-resources sector.

He told the crowd that it’s time for Canada to put more focus on developing knowledge-based sectors, rather than relying too much on volatile natural resources.

“Under Stephen Harper, we’ve returned almost to our colonial past — we are the hewers of wood and the drawers of water,” he said, underlining the need to build existing industries such as biotechnology, aerospace and video-game development.

“Believe me, this is isn’t rocket science. I know something about rocket science and this is not about rocket science.”

He also urged the Liberal party, reduced to a shadow of its once-mighty self in the 2011 election, to embrace change.

“We must build on the past, but not live in it,” he said.

“We don’t have a natural entitlement to be the government of this country — we have to earn it from Canadians and we are going to earn it from Canadians.”

Garneau closed the door on any formal partnership with the New Democrats, insisting that if he becomes leader the Liberals will run candidates in all 338 ridings across the country.

He also showed his intention to reconnect with Quebec, which was once fertile ground for Liberal support. In last year’s election, voters steered their support en masse to the NDP, electing them in 59 of Quebec’s 75 seats.

Garneau said Quebecers are fed up with old constitutional battles and promised to help the province realize its potential.

The former naval engineer was defeated in his first run for office in 2006, but he was elected in the longtime Liberal stronghold of Westmount-Ville-Marie in 2008. He was re-elected in 2011.